30年前，我创办了六家业务中的第一家。我没有正式的商业学位，会计培训，甚至没有我真正想开始的业务的想法。我只知道，我想成为我自己的老板start my own business. Because I was starting at square one with a lot to learn, many of my lessons came the hard way. But I kept at it, and today, those tough startup lessons learned only serve to make my success that much sweeter.
6个创业课程在硬敲门学校中学到的。
How to Take a Punch
The thought of being your own boss is intoxicating. It’s a little like getting a puppy. You think about how much fun it will be holding and snuggling your puppy. How it will always be happy to see you and how you can chase it around in the yard. Your puppy is going to be so much fun that you’ll overlook all the bad stuff, like when it eats your furniture or takes a potty break on your new carpet, and how it needs 24/7 attention. Well, your business puppy will come full of hidden costs, economic downturns, failed business plans, lack of customers, demanding banks,startup business credit cards，不眠之夜，蒸发周末，早晨和缺乏现金。将其全部添加，所有这些都可以将风吹出。
I started my company in the basement of a factory. We had about 300 square feet of space, no heat or AC, and the floors would flood. The rent was virtually zero, and Istillstruggled to make a profit. It was tough to be sure, but one of the startup lessons learned was how to be resilient and fight on, in good times and bad.
Prioritizing
Today people call the combination of social media marketing, PR, traditional marketing, email marketing, SEO, and Web page design “整合营销。”当我从事企业家职业生涯的早期时，我只是称其为生存！而且，想一想，所有这些营销都是您作为小型企业主戴的许多帽子中的一顶帽子。
因为您需要一直做很多事情，所以您需要学习优先级。问问自己，什么活动会为您的业务增值？现在不做任何事情的成本是多少？我不知道我应该吗？是时候进行研究还是采取行动了？我将使用什么指标来决定？
Patience
Seems counterintuitive, right? After all, most entrepreneurs are running around with their pants on fire, trying to keep their small business running. However, this constant state of urgency and reaction can be counterproductive in the long run.
Chances are that you started your company with a小型企业计划关于它将如何发展和发展至少几年。但是，正如他们所说，一旦子弹开始飞行，即使是最好的计划也被缩小到鸟笼衬里。但是，关注您对公司的未来目标是做出明智的短期决策的关键。经营一家企业充满了小型战斗。有时，输掉几场战斗更加谨慎，因此您有更好的机会赢得战争。
Don’t be afraid to cut products that aren’t making you any money, or stem the flow of marketing dollars. If you’re not moving closer to your goal, you’re moving farther from it.
The Power of Employees
作为企业主，您应该始终尝试寻找优质的员工，最好比您更聪明。它们是为您的商业机器提供动力的引擎。发动机越好，从商业机器中获得的生产就越好。
Early on in my entrepreneurial adventure, Ihired an employee清洁破布和毛巾，以进行印刷机。为了清洁压力机，他不得不使用臭和易燃的清洁液，然后用毛巾擦洗压力机。我告诉这名员工，他必须洗净并干毛巾，但我没有清楚地解释原因。但是，很明显，在我们建筑物的步行距离内有一个自助洗衣店。
My employee took the rags to the laundromat, and when the fumes from the rags (even after washing them) made contact with the pilot light in the gas-powered laundromat dryers, BOOM! The laundromat exploded. No one was hurt, but thelaundromat burnt down, and I thought my business would too! Talk about a startup lesson learned the hard way. Fortunately I survived, and mypayroll software和accounting software公司蓬勃发展，但很好。员工是您最有价值，最危险的资产。您必须选择，训练和管理。
You Must Sell
You can have the best idea, service, or product in the world, but if you don’t know how to sell it, what’s the point? So many people who talk to entrepreneurs talk about funding, or inventing a solution, or having a business that allows them to lead the kind of like they want to lead. While being an entrepreneur can be lots of things to lots of people, selling the fruits of your entrepreneurial labors is where the rubber really meets the road. If you can’t sell, you have no business.
I almost lost one of my companies due to a lack of sales. I had a great product and talented people to implement it, but I didn’t do a very good job incentivizing my sales team, or monitoring how they were selling. I assumed they were calling, explaining my product’s great virtues, and people were buying.
事实是，销售的艺术包括您要出售给的人，向客户出售的方式以及尝试进行销售的时机。如果您希望自己的业务成功，则必须掌握上述所有内容。
You’re Always Learning
为什么？因为市场一直在变化。您的客户一直在变化。你总是在改变。一些商业模式比其他商业模式更常见，但最佳实践改变了。这意味着您也必须改变。
如果您想从旧的最佳实践转换为新实践，并跟上商业景观的曲折，则需要密切关注周围发生的事情。我使用一种称为Info-Sponging的策略。我每天尝试从商业世界内外的许多来源学习新的东西。我并不总是立即看到所有信息的用途，但是随着时间的流逝，我看到概念凝胶和互连如何帮助我刺激创新。
如果您想成为一名成功的企业家，就无法降低头脑，纯粹专注于业务中发生的事情。花点时间环顾您的行业。建立信息来源。跟上趋势和创新。您可以打赌您的竞争对手保持最新。事实是，等到您倒闭才能戴上学习上限是您不想拥有的经历。
